Give your feedback on mandated unaltered non-commercial agreements
Non-commercial research sponsors across the UK are being asked to share their views on plans to mandate the use of unaltered model research agreements
In the UK there is an expectation for sponsors of non-commercial research to use unaltered template agreements when setting up studies.
This expectation is currently not formally mandated.
In partnership with UK Policy Leads, and building on the January 2026 update to the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network terms and conditions requiring use of contracts as specified in the letter of Health Research Authority (HRA) and Health Care Research Wales Approval, the HRA has agreed to mandate the use of unaltered template agreements for non-commercial research.
This will align the policy position for non-commercial research with what has been in place for commercial research since 2018.
The agreements to be mandated are:
- model Non-Commercial Agreement (mNCA), for use in interventional projects
- Organisation Information Document (OID), when used as the sponsor-site agreement
- model Non-Commercial Participant Identification Centre Agreement (mNC-PICA) site to participant identification centre
- model Non-Commercial Participant Identification Centre Agreement (mNC-PICA) sponsor to participant identification centre
- model Non-Commercial Hub and Spoke Agreement
A mandate to use the commercial model research agreements unaltered was introduced in October 2018 and has led to a significant reduction in the time taken to negotiate commercial research agreements. In turn this has freed up capacity for sites and sponsors in other areas of set-up.
Mandating the use of non-commercial model research agreements will have a similar positive impact, and further support streamlining of study set-up processes at NHS organisations.
Alongside the mandated use of an unaltered agreement, the HRA will also implement a new waiver process to manage the small number of cases where it is appropriate to use bespoke or altered non-commercial agreements.
The mandate is planned to be introduced in early 2027, but beforehand the HRA wants to hear feedback from sponsors who currently alter the non-commercial template or use bespoke research agreements.
If you are using altered or bespoke templates, please get in touch with the HRA by 5pm on Friday 14 August to better understand the reasons why you aren't using the existing template.
This will help ensure that the mandated non-commercial agreements work for everyone.
You can get in touch and share your feedback by emailing research.agreements@hra.nhs.uk.
Publication date: 30th July 2026
